I have been prescribed to take 20mg Lipitor daily. Honestly I think this dosage is too high, and when I am not subject to blood test within one month, I take half pills, or alternate, so as to bring my average usage down to 10mg daily. I take 100mg CoQ10 supplements daily, to cancel out the effect of statins on lowering CoQ10. I also take fish oil, which cancels out the effect of statins to reduce the beneficial effects of omega-3 fatty acids.
I think the official target levels for LDL/HDL are ridiculously hard to reach. IMO and IME one should never use a correction factor to achieve some target level exactly. Instead, correction factors should be used to split the difference between an uncorrected response (such as what my LDL is w/o statins) and what the nominal "ideal" is. This is because a measured target is only one possible thing (out of gazillions of things) that could be measured, and correcting one thing often puts other things not-measured out of bounds. That's the thinking behind why I try to approximate 10mg Lipitor daily. But if my blood test isn't exactly at the "ideal" level for an at-risk person, my MD wants to increase the statins. So I "cheat." Even cheating I'm below LDL levels that are bad except for people "at risk." I disagree that I'm an "at risk" person for heart disease. My relatively high weight is accompanied by relatively more muscle than many people, and heart disease does not run in my family.
Here's just one of millions of pages telling about the "grave dangers" of statin drugs. Is any of this true? I suspect there is some level of truth in this, but some truth also in the official LDL targets. FWIW I have never been aware of any ill side effects of statin use on me.
I think the official target levels for LDL/HDL are ridiculously hard to reach. IMO and IME one should never use a correction factor to achieve some target level exactly. Instead, correction factors should be used to split the difference between an uncorrected response (such as what my LDL is w/o statins) and what the nominal "ideal" is. This is because a measured target is only one possible thing (out of gazillions of things) that could be measured, and correcting one thing often puts other things not-measured out of bounds. That's the thinking behind why I try to approximate 10mg Lipitor daily. But if my blood test isn't exactly at the "ideal" level for an at-risk person, my MD wants to increase the statins. So I "cheat." Even cheating I'm below LDL levels that are bad except for people "at risk." I disagree that I'm an "at risk" person for heart disease. My relatively high weight is accompanied by relatively more muscle than many people, and heart disease does not run in my family.
Here's just one of millions of pages telling about the "grave dangers" of statin drugs. Is any of this true? I suspect there is some level of truth in this, but some truth also in the official LDL targets. FWIW I have never been aware of any ill side effects of statin use on me.
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